Notes from Cottonwood

Saturday we took the kids to the Old City. Narrow lanes, mud walls, carved doors with brass knockers shaped like hands. Our guide (Chynara's cousin) showed us the Temir-Kapka gate and the museum on the citadel mound, and told Sam that the mound used to be a fort where "bad people shot arrows at good people". Sam wants to know who was who.

A lane in the Old City. The door on the right is four hundred years old.

We ended at a small teahouse. The owner brought us cups half full, and I learned why: a full cup means "go home." So I drank fast and held out the cup so he could pour more. That earned a smile.